Large swell and strong winds made it difficult over the past week, but plenty of keen anglers still managed to get amongst some quality fish.

Trevally
Queenscliff harbour has been a great option for anglers looking to cast a soft plastic for a Trevally, Anthony Angelevski ventured down last week managed a couple of quality fish to 40+cm, these fish were taken on the ever reliable Turtleback worm in the pumpkinseed colour. The harbour has also been producing a few small squid on size 2.5 and 3.0 Yamashita jigs.

Whiting
Whiting continue to bite well right around the Peninsula, the large swell has made the weed a bit of a problem but those patient anglers prepared to work through it and regularly clear their lines are still being rewarded with bag limit captures.

Tuna
Southern Bluefin Tuna are really on the chew at the moment with many anglers heading down to Apollo Bay where there have been some quality fish taken to 100kg+. Portland and Port fairy are also producing good numbers of fish with all sizes being taken from good size school fish through to the larger barrels. Anglers venturing out to the shelf are also reporting good numbers of smaller Albacore.

Bream
Tackleworld Geelong’s Chris Pitman headed down to fish a Malacoota and Bemm River last week. The inclement weather followed Chris down there but he still managed to bag plenty of quality Bream despite the trying conditions. Chris found the Z man grub in motor oil to be his top performer for the Bream as well as this he also managed some quality Tailor trolling hardbodied such as the Double clutch 75.

Trout
Tim Beusmans decided the crowds at Wurdee Boluc were getting a bit much for him so he decided to give West Barwon Reservoir at Forrest a go. On arrival Tim found the water level to be extremely low. Not letting this discourage him he cast out a couple of carefully rigged mudeye suspended under a bubble float. After a short wait Tim soon found himself tight to a hard fighting quality Brown Trout, this fish weighed in at 1.5kg and Tim’s fishing mate Mick also managed a pair of Rainbow Trout of similar size all taken on mudeye.

Redfin
With so many anglers heading to Wurdee Boluc the Trout have slowed a bit but there is still plenty of quality Redfin being taken by those willing to put in the time. Trent Schiller popped in last week and picked himself up a new Daiwa Morethan and a Samurai Infinite combo, Trent wasted no time in heading down and blooding this rod on a couple of quality Redfin, needless to say he is loving this combo. Phill Walker headed out for an hour on Sunday afternoon and managed his PB redfin of 49.5cm that weighed 1.9kg, this fish was taken on a Fish Arrow soft plastic and put up a great fight in the wintery conditions. Our local freshwater lakes are a great option when the weather turns bad as you generally don’t have to venture to far away from the shelter of the car. Heading a little bit further afield was Michael Evans making the trip up to Newlyn Reservoir on Saturday morning, Michael managed two quality Redfin that were in excess of 45cm, both fish were taken on the Ecogear powershad soft plastic.

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Cod
Check out the shots of the monster cod, one was taken in the Goulburn at Shepparton and the other was taken on the ever reliable Codger in the Echuca area.

Next Week
Over the next week anglers should be considering their freshwater options as with the good drop of rain we’ve had we should see our local Trout and Salmon lakes start to really fire. Along the coast when the conditions allow the Salmon are really going well with some quality fish to 2kg being taken from many of our rocks and beaches. For those anglers with bigger things on their mind Apollo Bay is a great option for those larger Tuna.